President Obama Say's "Work hard in Taxi School"

We all work hard in Taxi School...The instructors pulling eight hour days in the classroom and the office staff, one lady answering phones, distributing books and faxing and emailing City offices to keep the data generated and information needed up to date...Even I spend a full 30 hours a week to keep bills paid, payroll, advertizing, blogs in order. and another 16 hours teaching and running exams...All to keep the flow of drivers to the seats of, the ever iconic Yellow Taxi Cabs of New York City, undisturbed...

As President Obama said yesterday to our children "Work hard, don't expect to succeed every time and wash your hands" I agree with these principles.....doesn't everybody?

But I doubt that many people outside our small universe of soon to be taxi drivers know how hard many people work to become taxi drivers....

Many of our students have not been in school since they were children...It's not easy to return..Many from some countries never went to school at all and struggle to grasp the simple vocabulary exams that they must be able to pass...Many are excellent communicators but having English as a second language, speaking it well, but having survied with minimal reading and writing, even after twenty or thirty years hear in the United States...Answering a simple multiple choice question on which of the following is "NOT"true becomes a hurdle..

So it becomes the task of the Master Cabbie Taxi Academy of New York City to structure a path from wanting to drive a taxi to passing a reasonably comprehensive exam that will cause the issuance of the New York City Taxi Operators License, a Hack License....

There are some people that can pass the exams without going to school. It is a small percentage of critical thinkers who know the City well enough to use a process of elimination during the exam and choose the most likely answer. But answering an obvious question about the Empire State Building and knowing which neighborhood holds the intersection of Webster Ave. and Mosholu Parkway are two different worlds of knowlege...So Taxi School is needed.

At the Taxi School though, what we do for the struggling student is our greatest contribution to the New York City Taxi Industry...We take a marginal candidate on paper, one who truly wants to improve his life by taxi driving and move him closer to his goal...There is no more motivated worker than one who sees an opportunity in taxi driving. Rather than a banker that has lost his job, or a school teacher who is moonlighting or on summer vacation..

Don't get me worng.. We need the school teachers and the bankers...They are a very important part of our industry. History tells us however, that when the economy rolls around to recovery the bakers and school teachers will be leaving and the student that struggled through with our help will still be driving a taxicab and happy to do it...

Each has its value, and all work hard....